Sloss Furnace class welds metal into art (with slideshow and video)

Sparks flew again under one of Sloss Furnace's casting sheds Sunday morning as four novice welders transformed scrap metal into art.

The four were taking creative welding, a two-day class with instructor Julie Carpenter, a Birmingham area metal artist.

"It's a basic class. No skills are required," Carpenter said.

Saturday, students got a demonstration on their first day. Then Sunday morning, the novice welders began the task of tackling their art projects.

Carpenter, who makes metal dresses and jewelry, said she has been offering the class for two years at the historic iron casting furnace. Sloss is now a museum and home to iron and bronze casting and fabrication facilities for artists, and classes include jewelry making, blacksmithing and welding.

At her creative welding class, students are taught basic oxyacetylene and MIG welding techniques, Carpenter said. "Hopefully they'll want to leave and do it at home," she said.

The two-day welding class is held one weekend a month, with a maximum of six students. The cost is $250.

"They go home with a work of art," Carpenter said.

Carpenter stresses using scrap metal for the art work. Recycle USA in Pinson donates scrap metal for her classes.

Rick Honeycutt, a Realtor from Vestavia, made a work table using scrap steel parts -- square tubing, a flat plate and a rusted rotor from a truck's braking system as the base.

"I'm trying to be artistic in my practicality," Honeycutt said. "I'll probably put it in my back yard, where I anticipate doing my welding."

Honeycutt said he had always wanted to weld to make art for years, but had never done it. He got his chance when his four children chipped in to pay for the class. "I love it," he said.

'Bucket list item'

Danny Harris, 44, a mechanical engineer from Huntsville, worked on an outside wall sculpture of the blazing Sun.

He was using a scrap brake rotor as the Sun's core. He then hammered metal rods into curvy shapes for the flames that he then welded to the rotor.

Harris said he's tried different art workshops before, but this was his first try at welding.

"Learning to weld is kind of a bucket list item for me," Harris said. "Every mechanical engineer needs to know how to weld."

Bernie White, an arts teacher and musician from Birmingham, worked on a metal ukulele. The body -- or sound box -- portion was cut from scrap thin gauge steel that looked like it had once been the outer covering for a piece of equipment.

It was White's first stab at welding.

He has built mandolins and guitars using wood and fiberglass, but had never built one with metal, White said. "I think the metal will give me a crisper sound," he said.

White also brought a metal resonator he had ordered to place over the hole of the ukulele's cavity. Resonators were used to make acoustic guitars louder in the days before electric guitars came on the scene.

Stephanie Ardel, of Birmingham, cut up scrap pieces of steel with an oxygen acytelene torch as she built an abstract sculpture as her first welded piece. She said she has been in the real estate business but was looking to transition into becoming an artist.